RSS feeds

What is RSS?

RSS is a system for making news and other information available from a website for people to access without having to browse the website in the usual way (it stands for Really Simple Syndication, or Rich [or RDF] Site Summary, depending on who you believe). For example, most news websites use RSS to make a list of headlines available - these headlines generally carry links to the full story, and perhaps also a summary.

How do I use it?

A variety of systems are available for displaying RSS feeds - which approach you choose is a matter of personal preference. Here is a non-exhaustive list of possibilities:

• Web browser:
  A few web browsers, for example the increasingly popular Firefox, will display RSS feeds. Firefox autodetects feeds with an icon at the bottom-right of your screen - clicking on this allows you to add the feed as a "Live Bookmark", which will display in your bookmarks sidebar. This will give you a list of the items in the feed (for example, news headlines) which act as links to the full story.
• E-mail client:
  A few e-mail clients have built-in support for displaying feeds along with your e-mails. Opera Mail (M2) has this feature. If you use Microsoft Outlook, there are proprietary add-ons which provide RSS features - these include Newsgator (Outlook Edition) and Intravnews.
• Online:
  There are services for displaying your selected RSS feeds together on a website. This is similar in concept to active bookmarks, and would make a convenient home page. Newsgator offers a free online service.
• Standalone program:
  A variety of dedicated programs exist (called feedreaders or news aggregators) for displaying RSS feeds in a variety of ways - this can include adding items to the desktop, pop-up windows for new items and icons in the notification area. Examples include Feedreader and Sharpreader, but many others will be found from a web search.

What MCR-related feeds are there?

The Sidney Sussex MCR RSS feed includes upcoming events, the progress of online sign-up for guest nights, latest news, website updates and changes, and recent additions to the forum and photo gallery. This information is also available on the front page of the website. The address you need to subscribe to is: http://www.srcf.ucam.org/sidneymcr/rss.php.

The Graduate Union supplies a feed at http://www.gradunion.cam.ac.uk/news/rss.php for the latest news and announcements from the GU. The latest item from this feed is also syndicated on the MCR website front page.